U.S. patent application number 11/385034 was filed with the patent office on 2007-09-20 for completing emergency calls over a network with a malfunctioning backhaul communications link.
Invention is credited to Georg Fischer, Peter Hans Schefczik.
Application Number | 20070218868 11/385034 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 38518545 |
Filed Date | 2007-09-20 |
United States Patent
Application |
20070218868 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Schefczik; Peter Hans ; et
al. |
September 20, 2007 |
Completing emergency calls over a network with a malfunctioning
backhaul communications link
Abstract
A method and an apparatus are provided for enabling a wireless
communication over a network in response to an indication of an
emergency. The method comprises causing a base station to provide a
wireless backhaul link in an uplink frequency band for further
sending a call over the network in response to the call associated
with the emergency. Reconfiguration enables turning a base station
or base station router into a high power terminal. In this way,
emergency calls may be completed over a network having at least one
malfunctioning backhaul communications link in a network
backbone.
Inventors: |
Schefczik; Peter Hans;
(Erlangen, DE) ; Fischer; Georg; (Nuremberg,
DE) |
Correspondence
Address: |
WILLIAMS, MORGAN & AMERSON
10333 RICHMOND, SUITE 1100
HOUSTON
TX
77042
US
|
Family ID: |
38518545 |
Appl. No.: |
11/385034 |
Filed: |
March 20, 2006 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
455/404.1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04W 84/10 20130101;
H04W 4/90 20180201; H04W 76/50 20180201; H04W 76/20 20180201; H04W
92/12 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
455/404.1 |
International
Class: |
H04M 11/04 20060101
H04M011/04 |
Claims
1. A method of enabling a wireless communication over a network in
response to an indication of an emergency, the method comprising:
in response to a call associated with said emergency, causing a
base station to provide a wireless backhaul link in an uplink
frequency band for further sending said call over said network.
2. A method, as set forth in claim 1, further comprising: accepting
said call and associated information even when said network is
being off line; and swapping a transmit frequency band with a
receiver frequency band to reconfigure at least one of said base
station and base station router into a terminal.
3. A method, as set forth in claim 2, further comprising: storing
said call and said associated information; and forwarding said call
over said wireless backhaul link when a fixed wired backbone
network link indicates a malfunction.
4. A method, as set forth in claim 3, further comprising: using a
filter to convert a downlink sender of said base station into an
uplink sender providing a high-powered terminal that overcomes said
malfunction of said fixed wired backbone network link.
5. A net set forth in claim 4, for the comprising: using said
filter to cause said base station to operate as said base station
router that uses said wireless backhaul link to complete said call
instead of using said fixed wired backbone network link.
6. A method, as set forth in claim 5, further comprising: enabling
a wireless service based on said filter at said base station
router.
7. A method, as set forth in claim 3, wherein storing said call
further comprises: storing a voice call on at least one of a local
disk and a random access memory.
8. A method, as set forth in claim 3, wherein storing said call
further comprises: detecting whether a link to a backbone network
is available; and if so, uploading information associated with said
call using at least one of a satellite connection, a wireless local
area network connection, a WiMAX connection, a UMTS link and a CDMA
link to another base station having a backhaul connectivity.
9. A method, as set forth in claim 8, further comprising:
delivering said call in non-real time using one of said satellite
connections, a wireless local area network connection, a WiMAX
connection, a UMTS link and a CDMA link to said another base
station.
10. A method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein storing said call
further comprises: reconfiguring said base station to enable a
radio frequency terminal for completing said wireless
communication.
11. A method, as set forth in claim 10, wherein reconfiguring said
base station further comprises: using a transceiver at said base
station to swap a transmit frequency band with a receiver frequency
band.
12. A method, as set forth in claim 11, wherein reconfiguring said
base station further comprises: enabling a desired cell range of
transmit power for said wireless backhaul link using at least one
of a CDMA and UMTS protocol based on uplink budget.
13. A method, as set forth in claim 12, wherein reconfiguring said
base station further comprises: coupling an antenna to said base
station with said transmit power; and increasing said desired cell
range based on said transmit power.
14. A method, as set forth in claim 12, wherein the method in said
emergency further comprises: causing said base station to operate
in one of a base station mode or a mobile terminal mode based on an
indication of frequency change.
15. A method, as set forth in claim 14, wherein reconfiguring said
base station further comprises: providing all radio frequency
related modules in said base station to be frequency agile for
enabling a base station router that is symmetric in frequency
bands.
16. A method, as set forth in claim 15, wherein reconfiguring said
base station further comprises: supporting at least one of a
point-to-point and a point-to-multipoint radio frequency
communications.
17. A method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the method in said
emergency further comprises: providing at least one of a base
station router and said base station; detecting said indication of
emergency at said base station router; in response to said
indication of emergency, enabling a stand alone service using said
base station router without a backbone by storing and forwarding
said call; and causing said base station router to turn into a high
powered terminal to communicate with another base station for
forwarding a message in said call.
18. A method, as set forth in claim 17, wherein the method in said
emergency further comprises: distributing emergency information
associated with said call using at least one of said base station
router and said base station.
19. A method, as set forth in claim 18, wherein the method in said
emergency further comprises: informing a user with an audio
announcement regarding storing of said call and subsequent to
delivering of said message.
20. A method, as set forth in claim 19, wherein the method in said
emergency further comprises: transmitting at least one of sensory
or other information from said base station router in an emergency
area toward a central server station in a backbone network.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] This invention relates generally to telecommunications, and
more particularly, to wireless communications.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
[0002] Wireless communications systems or mobile telecommunication
systems typically provide different types of services to various
users or subscribers of wireless communication devices. The
wireless communication devices may be mobile or fixed units and
situated within a geographic region across one or more wireless
networks. The users or subscribers of wireless communication
devices, such as mobile stations (MSs) or access terminals or user
equipment may constantly move within (and outside) particular
wireless networks.
[0003] A wireless communications system generally includes one or
more base stations (BSs) that can establish wireless communications
links with mobile stations. Base stations may also be referred to
as node-Bs or access networks. To form the wireless communications
link between a mobile station and a base station, the mobile
station accesses a list of available channels/carriers broadcast by
the base station. To this end, a wireless communications system,
such as a spread spectrum wireless communications system, may allow
multiple users to transmit simultaneously within the same wideband
radio channel, enabling a frequency re-use based on a spread
spectrum technique.
[0004] Many cellular systems, for example, spread-spectrum cellular
systems use a Code division multiple access (CDMA) protocol to
transmit data in a wireless network consistent with a desired
standard, such as IS-95, CDMA2000 or Universal Mobile
Telecommunication System (UMTS) based wideband-CDMA (WCDMA). A
spread-spectrum cellular system generally provides transmissions
associated with one or more mobile stations that a base station may
be serving on the downlink (a.k.a. forward (FL) link). As such,
transmissions from the mobile stations to the base station may
occur on the uplink (a.k.a. reverse link (RL)). Likewise, on the
reverse link (RL), one or more mobile stations may communicate with
a base station serving the mobile stations.
[0005] For establishing a wireless communication in a cellular
system, a base station (BS) schedules the transmissions of the
various mobile stations (MSs) that it is serving on the MS-to-BS
(reverse or uplink link, RL). To this end, a base station may
provide channels that have different capabilities to the mobile
stations on the BS-to-MS link (forward link or downlink, FL). For
example, a base station may provide channels that operate according
to a desired protocol and provides a number of air interfaces to
traffic channels, control channels, and access channels. Mobile
stations may establish wireless communications links with the base
station using one of the channels. In particular, for Third
Generation Project Partnership (3GPP) standard, access terminals
(AT) or more generically mobile stations (MS) use pilot strength to
select forward link (AN-AT link) data rates via data rate control
(DRC) messages on the Reverse Link (RL). A rate value is fed back
to an AN or a BS. An AT or the MS sends a request for a data rate
to the AN or the BS to transmit at that data rate in the next
transmission.
[0006] Typically, a backhaul link is used to communicate a wireless
communication over a network to complete a call, such as a voice
call from a caller to an intended call user. A backhaul link in a
network provides a link, for example, between a base station and
the Internet, a data center, a central switch, e.g., a mobile
switching center (MSC).
[0007] Wireless infrastructure is a crucial communication vehicle.
However, the entire communication infrastructure may become
unusable in case of disasters or other catastrophes if the usual
wireline backhaul link is destroyed. Even in cases where a quick
wireless infrastructure is needed on the fly, it cannot be
installed easily if the backhaul infrastructure is not working or
simply was not present before.
[0008] Many wireless networks consist of a hierarchical collection
of network including a base station, a controller, a switching
center and routers and their connection to a fixed network using
coax, optical or microwave links. Real time services like voice
calls cease to complete if a connection of a base station to a
fixed network is lost or malfunctions. Full service is only
possible if a physical connection still exists. This is
particularly the case for real-time services like emergency calls,
but also for delivery of non real-time services like Short Message
Service (SMS) or other E-messages.
[0009] During failures of the communication infrastructure of a
wireless network phone calls cannot be placed, messages cannot be
delivered or sent and information cannot be received by a mobile
phone user in a particular failure area. Even if a base station has
power back-up, this does not help in case a link to the rest of the
network is absent. This is why in case of disasters like
earthquakes, flood, storms or other incidents the destroyed
infrastructure may not enable completion of phone calls even if the
base station still continues to operate as intended without any
backhaul connectivity. That is, conventional mobiles may not
function in various scenarios listed above.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0010] The following presents a simplified summary of the invention
in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the
invention. This summary is not an exhaustive overview of the
invention. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements
of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its
sole purpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as a
prelude to the more detailed description that is discussed
later.
[0011] The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least
reducing, the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth
above.
[0012] In one embodiment of the present invention, a method is
provided for enabling a wireless communication over a network in
response to an indication of an emergency. The method comprises
causing a base station to provide a wireless backhaul link in an
uplink frequency band for further sending a call over the network
in response to the call associated with the emergency.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013] The invention may be understood by reference to the
following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying
drawings, in which like reference numerals identify like elements,
and in which:
[0014] FIG. 1 schematically depicts a wireless network in which a
base station or a base station router enables wireless
communication in response to an indication of emergency according
to one illustrative embodiment of the present invention;
[0015] FIG. 2 depicts a stylized representation of a method for
implementing an emergency apparatus of the wireless networks shown
in FIG. 1 to complete a call using the base station router
consistent with one exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
and
[0016] FIG. 3 depicts a stylized representation for implementing a
method of reconfiguring a base station and/or the base station
router into a terminal consistent with one exemplary embodiment of
the present invention.
[0017] While the invention is susceptible to various modifications
and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown
by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in
detail. It should be understood, however, that the description
herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the
invention to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary,
the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and
alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention
as defined by the appended claims.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS
[0018] Illustrative embodiments of the invention are described
below. In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual
implementation are described in this specification. It will of
course be appreciated that in the development of any such actual
embodiment, numerous implementation-specific decisions may be made
to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with
system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary
from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be
appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and
time-consuming, but may nevertheless be a routine undertaking for
those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this
disclosure.
[0019] Generally, a method and an apparatus are provided for
accepting, storing and forwarding emergency calls and other
information off-line even in cases where a fixed backbone network
malfunctions. A Base Station Router (BSR) includes a flexible
filter apparatus to turn the base station router into a
high-powered terminal capable of wirelessly transmitting at a
transmit power that may overcome an absent or malfunctioning
backhaul link using a wireless backhaul link if and when desired
the filter apparatus. The base station router may enable services
for a wireless device by using the filter apparatus. One
application of the base station router may be providing security
and completing voice calls even when a fixed, wired backhaul link
to a backbone network becomes unavailable. A UMTS standard
compliant base station router may comprise UMTS software and
circuitry in a box system, which may be equipped with a battery
pack and a storage device to form a stand alone unit. The
UMTS-based base station router may allow an operator to offer
emergency backup services without a backbone network. A standalone
base station router relies on the battery and the storage device
for use in catastrophic or other situations that leaves other
infrastructure inoperational. Particularly, in absence of a wired
link up to a backhaul network, the base station router may enable
accepting, storing and forwarding of emergency calls or messages
from conventional mobile phones, such as GSM or UMTS compliant
phones. By storing a voice call on a local disk or random access
memory (RAM) as long as an appropriate backhaul link becomes
available, the battery backed base station router may upload the
collected information using, e.g., a Very Small Aperture Terminal
(VSAT) connection to a satellite, a WLAN connection to a
helicopter, a (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
(WiMAX) connection or even a UMTS link to another base station that
has backhaul connectivity intact. A UMTS case described below uses
reconfiguration of hardware and/or software for calls (voice
messages) or SMS/MMS that may not be delivered in real time.
Instead, calls or messages may either be sent up over a VSAT link
or a quick upload to a helicopter using WLAN or WiMAX or other
wireless connections. While in 3GPP specifications, for example,
emergency calls are specified as real time service without
authentication, without any time lag and with precedence, a base
station router utilizing non real time emergency services may
provide numerous benefits and features set forth below:
[0020] 1. Support of collecting emergency voice calls, storing it
and forwarding it when appropriate, even over a non real time
backhaul link. [0021] 2. Emergency calls may be voice calls, Short
Message Service (SMS), Message Service (MMS) or other E-messages
like E-mail. [0022] 3. Multimedia content (automatic voice calls,
SMS, MMS, E-mails, pictures or even video) may be distributed, e.g.
in a carousel mode, towards the mobile stations in a coverage with
malfunctioning backhaul link. [0023] 4. Pictures may be taken of
the surroundings of the base station router and sent up together
with location-based information. [0024] 5. Even if electric supply
fails due to natural or man-made calamities, such as bad weather
conditions, earthquakes, hurricanes, or water from dyke breaks, a
base station router-based emergency device may still remain usable
using a built in battery. [0025] 6. A base station router 110 may
be selectively reconfigured to operate either as a base station or
as a terminal.
[0026] The base station router may use frequency agile radio
frequency (RF) techniques and a baseband that supports swapping of
a base station and a terminal protocol stack. Some of the
advantages of a base station router-based method of completing
emergency calls over a network with a malfunctioning backhaul
communication link include: [0027] 1. A general scheme for
supporting emergency services during catastrophes or other
disasters using a base station router architecture with Global
System of Mobile Communications (GSM), UMTS or WCDMA protocols.
[0028] 2. A base station router-based application may not
differentiate different standards. [0029] 3. A base station
router-based apparatus may be economically deployable within a
relatively short time frame. [0030] 4. A wireline connection to a
backbone network may need not be installed. [0031] 5. The base
station router without modifying existing mobiles may support UMTS,
GSM or WCDMA standards. [0032] 6. The reach of emergency services
may be substantially enhanced, even if links intended to remain
operational after a catastrophe fail to support real-time services.
For example, SMS and MMS (transfer of pictures) become more
important in the emergency situation. [0033] 7. Voice messages may
be preprocessed, and audio compressed inside the base station
router so that only a small amount of data may be transferred, use
of low data rate non-real-time links after a disaster.
[0034] While Uplink and downlink frequency band are both present at
the time; in infrastructure mode the BSR TX operates in downlink
and the BSR RX operates in uplink band. When the BSR is
reconfigured into a high power terminal than the reconfigured BSR's
TX operates now in uplink band and the reconfigured BSRs RX now
operates in downlink band. The underlying air interface protocols
typically all assume that uplink and downlink are active at the
same time.
[0035] Essentially the transceivers frequencies for Tx and RX may
be reprogrammed. A power amplifier normally transmits at downlink
frequencies, then after reconfiguration it operates at uplink
frequencies. A duplex filter may be reconfigured also to pass the
changed frequency to the antenna.
[0036] Referring to FIG. 1, a wireless network 100 is illustrated
to include a mobile station 105 and a base station router (BSR) 110
that may enable a wireless communication 115 in response to an
indication of emergency 120 according to one illustrative
embodiment of the present invention. For example, in response to a
call 125 associated with the indication of emergency 120, the base
station router 110 may provide a wireless backhaul link 130 in an
uplink frequency band 117 for further sending the call 125 over a
digital cellular network 100a. The base station router 110 may
accept the call 125 and associated information, such as the
indication of emergency 120 even when the network 100 is being off
line. That is, the base station router 110 may provide a way for
the call 125 to complete even when a backhaul link 135 is missing.
Examples of the backhaul link 135 include a fixed, wired network
link that provides backhaul connectivity.
[0037] The base station router 110, in one embodiment, may comprise
communication circuitry 140, a battery pack 145, storage 150 to
store filter software 155 and other data, a transceiver 160, and a
filter 165 coupled to an antenna 170 to communicate with the mobile
station 105. The communication circuitry 140 may comprise
conventional communication circuits to enable the base station
router 110 to communicate with the mobile station 105. The battery
pack 145 may supply power to the base station router 110 when the
power infrastructure and the backhaul link 135 become
inoperational. The storage 150 may store the filter software 155
and any suitable communications software compliant with any one of
standards, protocols, specifications suitable for a particular
application. The transceiver 160 may provide communications, such
as radio frequency (RF) communications over the network 100. The
filter 165 may enable a wireless service at the base station router
110 in some embodiments of the present invention. The transceiver
160 may comprise an RF power amplifier that supplies the RF
transmit power to the antenna 170 to increase a desired cell
range.
[0038] The communication circuitry 140 may comprise conventional
communication circuits to enable the base station 110 to
communicate with the mobile station 105 and to an Internet Protocol
(IP) network 182 that may comprise a backhaul network 185, what may
couple to Internet backbone 185a. In addition, the communication
circuitry 140 may cause the base station router 110 to communicate
with a controller 180, such as a radio network controller. The
controller 180 may couple to another base station, such as another
base station 110a.
[0039] While the base station 110a may comprise a receiver (RX)
190, the backhaul network 185 may comprise a receiver 190a. The
transceiver 160 of the base station router 110 may communicate
wirelessly with the receiver 190. The controller 180 may couple to
a mobile switching center (MSC) 195, which in turn, couples to a
conventional router 197.
[0040] In operation, a base station provided as the base station
router 110 a base station may use the filter software 155 to detect
the indication of emergency 120. At the base station router 110, in
response to the call 125, the base station may enable a stand alone
service without the backbone network 185 by storing the call 125 in
the storage 150. The filter software 155 may cause the base station
router 110 to turn into a high-powered terminal to communicate with
another base station such as the base station 110a for forwarding a
message in the call 125.
[0041] By using the filter software 155, the base station router
110 may store the call 125 and the associated information in the
storage 150. For example, the storage 150 may store a voice call on
a local disk and/or a random access memory. When the fixed,
backbone wired network link 135 indicates a malfunction, the base
station router 110 may forward the call 125 over the wireless
backhaul link 130. The base station router 110 may deliver call 125
in non-real time using one of a satellite connection, a wireless
local area network (WLAN) connection, WiMAX connection and/or a
UMTS connection to another base station 110a or base station router
110 having backhaul connectivity. For example, using a CDMA or UMTS
protocol, based on an uplink budget, the base station router 110
may enable a desired cell range of transmit power for the wireless
backhaul link 130.
[0042] The filter software 155 may cause the base station router
110 to operate in one of a base station mode or a mobile terminal
mode based on an indication of frequency change. That is, in an
emergency situation indicated by the indication of the emergency
120, the base station router 110 may operate selectively in one of
at least two different modes. By using the filter 165 and the
filter software 155, the base station operates as a stand alone
base station router, such as the base station router 110. The base
station router 110 provides a terminal that overcomes the
malfunction of the fixed, wired backbone network link 135 in one
embodiment of the present invention. The terminal may use the
filter 165 and the transceiver 160 to operate as the base station
router 110, which causes a base station to enable a wireless link,
such as the wireless backhaul link 130 instead of providing
communications or connectivity for the call 125 over the backhaul
link 135
[0043] In other words, a filter apparatus 162 comprising the filter
165 and the filter software 155 may cause a base station, such as
the base station router 110, to provide the backhaul link 135 in
the form of the wireless backhaul link 130. The wireless backhaul
link 130 may provide a point-to-point and/or a point-to-multipoint
radio frequency communications. To this end, the radio frequency
modules including the communication circuitry 140, filter 165,
transceiver 160, filter software 155 may the adapted to be
frequency agile.
[0044] In one embodiment of the present invention, the base station
router 110 may distribute emergency related information based on
the indication of emergency 120 associated with the call 125 across
the network 100. For example, the base station Transceiver 160 may
inform a user with an audio announcement regarding storing of the
call 125 subsequent to learning of a message.
[0045] The base station router 110 may provide wireless
connectivity to the mobile station 105 according to any desirable
protocol. Examples of a protocol include a code division multiple
access (CDMA, CDMA2000) protocol, wideband-CDMA (WCDMA) protocol, a
Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) protocol, a Global
System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol.
[0046] Examples of the mobile station 105 may include a host of
wireless communication devices including, but not limited to,
cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and global
positioning systems (GPS) that employ the wireless network 100 to
operate in a high-speed wireless data network, such as a digital
cellular CDMA network. Other examples of the mobile station 105 may
include smart phones, text messaging devices, and the like.
[0047] Consistent with one embodiment, the mobile station 105 may
transmit messages to the base station router 110 over a reverse or
uplink link. To enable a user of the mobile station 105 to
communicate in the wireless network 100, a radio network controller
(RNC) may be coupled to abase station. In a cellular system the
wireless communication 115 between the base station router 110 and
the mobile station 105 may occur over an air interface 130 via a
radio frequency (RF) medium that may use a code division multiple
access (CDMA) protocol to support multiple users. A forward or
downlink link may provide messages to the mobile station 105. The
messages may include traffic packets and signaling messages over a
relatively high-speed wireless data network, such as a cellular
network.
[0048] When moving within a high-speed wireless data network, such
as a digital cellular CDMA network, a handover of mobile
communications occurs for the mobile station 105 upon a user
leaving an area of responsibility of a first cell, namely, into a
new cell. This handover may be coordinated by the controller 180.
The 180 controller may coordinate the handover of mobile
communications upon a user leaving an area of responsibility of a
first base station, into a second base station.
[0049] To communicate with different base stations, the mobile
station 105 may comprise a receiver (RX) and a transmitter (TX).
While the receiver may receive transmissions of packet data from
the set of base stations, the transmitter may transmit packet data
to the set of base stations may be associated with a different cell
sector of a base station.
[0050] The mobile station 105 may send the feedback on an uplink
and/or a reverse link (RL) to the base station router 110 to
indicate the value of the revised data rate. The base station
router 110 may receive the feedback for data rate control over the
reverse link on a data rate control channel (DRC). In response to
the feedback associated with the measurement of the primary pilot
and/or the secondary pilot.
[0051] One example of the high-speed wireless data network includes
a digital cellular network based on a CDMA protocol, such as
specified by the 3rd Generation (3G) Partnership Project (3GPP2)
specifications. The 3G cellular systems provide enhanced voice
capacity and support high data rate packet based services. These
features are provided in cdma2000 1xEV high rate packet data air
system referred to as IS-856. The 3G cellular system cdma2000 1xEV
provides high-speed wireless Internet access to mobile users with
asymmetric data traffic relative to a cellular system based on
IS-95 standard. For example, data rate of a user of the mobile
station 105 may very from 9.6 kbps to 153.6 kbps.
[0052] The base station router 110, sometimes referred to as
Node-B, may provide connectivity to associated geographical areas
within the high-speed wireless data network. The base station
router 110 may transmit traffic packets, such as data packets. For
example, traffic packets may include voice information, images,
video, data requested from an Internet site, and the like. In
contrast, signaling messages may be used to provide commands to
each mobile station 105 and/or other elements of the wireless
network 100. Examples of the signaling messages may include
configuration messages, setup instructions, switch instructions,
handoff instructions, and the like.
[0053] In the wireless network 100, a wireless data network may
deploy any desirable protocol to enable wireless communications
between the first and second base stations and the mobile stations
according to any desirable protocol. Examples of such a protocol
include a (CDMA, WCDMA) protocol, a UMTS protocol, a GSM protocol,
and like. A radio network controller (RNC) may be coupled to the
first and the second base stations and to enable a user of the
first and second mobile stations to communicate packet data over a
network, such as a cellular network. One example of the cellular
network includes a digital cellular network based on a CDMA
protocol, such as specified by the 3rd Generation (3G) Partnership
Project (3GPP) specifications.
[0054] Other examples of such a protocol include a WCMDA protocol,
a UMTS protocol, a GSM protocol, and like. The controller 180 may
manage exchange of wireless communications between the mobile
stations 105 and the first and second base stations according to
one illustrative embodiment of the present invention. Although two
base stations and one controller 180 are shown in FIG. 1, persons
of ordinary skill in the pertinent art having benefit of the
present disclosure should appreciate that any desirable number of
base station router 110 and radio network controllers 180 may be
used.
[0055] Each of the base station router 110 and the base station
11a, sometimes referred to as Node-Bs, may provide connectivity to
associated geographical areas within a wireless data network.
Persons of ordinary skill in the art should appreciate that
portions of such a wireless data network may be suitably
implemented in any number of ways to include other components using
hardware, software, or a combination thereof. Wireless data
networks are known to persons of ordinary skill in the art and so,
in the interest of clarity, only those aspects of a wireless data
network that are relevant to the present invention will be
described herein.
[0056] According to one embodiment, the mobile station 105 may
communicate with an active base station on the reverse link via the
controller 180 coupled to the base stations. The mobile station 105
may communicate over the reverse link with the active base station,
which is generally referred to as the serving base station or the
serving sector. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP2)
standard defines the role of a serving base station or a serving
sector and a serving radio network controller based on 3GPP2
specifications.
[0057] In one embodiment, the reverse link and the forward link may
be established on a plurality of channels. The channels, such as
traffic and control channels may be associated with separate
channel frequencies. For example, CDMA channels with associated
channel number and frequency may form a wireless communication link
for transmission of high-rate packet data. On the reverse link, for
example, the mobile station 105 may update the base station router
110 with a data rate to receive transmissions on the traffic
channel. The forward link may use a Forward MAC Channel that
includes four sub-channels including a Reverse Power Control (RPC)
Channel, a Data Rate Control Lock (DRCLock) Channel, ACK channel
and a Reverse Activity (RA) Channel.
[0058] On the reverse link, the mobile station 105 may transmit on
an Access Channel or a Traffic Channel. The Access Channel includes
a Pilot Channel and a Data Channel. The Traffic Channel includes
Pilot, MAC and Data Channels. The MAC Channel comprises four
sub-channels including a Reverse Rate Indicator (RRI) sub-channel
that is used to indicate whether the Data Channel is being
transmitted on the Reverse Traffic Channel and the data rate.
Another sub-channel is a Data Rate Control (DRC) that is used by
the mobile station 105 to indicate to the base station router 110
the revised data rate that the traffic channel may support on the
best serving sector. An acknowledgement (ACK) sub-channel is used
by the mobile station 105 to inform the base station router 110
whether the data packet transmitted on the traffic channel has been
received successfully. A Data Source Control (DSC) sub-channel is
used to indicate which of the base station sectors should be
transmitting forward link data.
[0059] In another embodiment, the mobile station 105 may request
transmission of packet data, as shown in FIG. 1, from at least two
cell sectors associated with one or more of the set of base
stations. In one embodiment, the wireless network 100 may be based
on a cellular network, which at least in part, may be based on a
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) standard. The
cellular network may be related to any one of the 2G, 3G, or 4G
standards that employ any one of the protocols including the UMTS,
CDMA2000, or the like, however, use of a particular standard or a
specific protocol is a matter of design choice and not necessarily
material to the present invention.
[0060] In one embodiment, a conventional Open Systems
Interconnection (OSI) model may enable transmission of the packet
data and other data including messages, packets, datagram, frames,
and the like between the mobile station 105 and the set of base
stations. The term "packet data" may include information or media
content that has been arranged in a desired manner. The packet data
may be transmitted as frames including, but not limited to, a radio
link protocol (RLP) frame, signaling link protocol (SLP) frame or
any other desired format. Examples of the packet data may include a
payload data packet representative of voice, video, signaling,
media content, or any other type of information based on a specific
application.
[0061] One particular scenario may cause the mobile station 105
located at a fixed location within a sector associated with a
conventional cell of the wireless network 100 may use the pilot
(either primary or secondary depending on whether the mobile
station 105 is a legacy or a Revision B type) C/I measurement to
generate a DRC value.
[0062] Referring to FIG. 2, a stylized representation of a method
for implementing the emergency apparatus 112 for the network 100 to
complete the call 125 using the base station router 110 is shown in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. At a
decision block 205, the base station router 110, by using the
filter software 155 may detect whether the call 125, such as a
voice call in an emergency situation is indicated by the indication
of the emergency 120. A check at the decision block 205 may
ascertain whether a link to the backbone network 185 is available.
If so, the filter software 155 may cause the filter 165 at the base
station router 110 to provide a backhaul link, such as the wireless
backhaul link 130 for sending the call 125 further over the network
100, and as shown in block 210. For example, the call 125 may be
completed to and intended user of a mobile terminal from the mobile
terminal 105. In this way, the base station router 110 may enable
the wireless communication 115 over the network 100 in response to
the indication of emergency 120, as shown in block 215.
[0063] Referring to FIG. 3, in stylized representation implementing
of a method for reconfiguring a base station 110a or a base station
router 110 into a terminal mode base station is schematically
illustrated according to one embodiment of the present to
invention. At block 300, the filter software 155 may swap the
transmit frequency band with the receiver frequency band to
reconfigure a base station or the base station router 110 into a
terminal. At block 305, the base station router 110 may accept the
call 125 and associated information, such as the indication of
emergency 120 even when the network 100 is being off line. The base
station router 110 may store the call 125 and the indication of
emergency 120 at block 310.
[0064] In one embodiment, the Base station router (BSR) 110 being a
derivate of the base station 110a may use identical frequency bands
to the base station 110a. One difference between the two is that
base station 11 Oa connects to a radio network controller (RNC)
180, thus may not operate independently and that the BSR 110
connects directly to the Internet 185awithout need for an RNC. By
reconfiguring, as set forth above, the BSR 110 or the base station
110a may be turned into a high power-terminal. Such terminals may
have swapped RX and TX bands compared to BSR/base stations.
[0065] By storing a voice call on a local disk or random access
memory (RAM) as long as an appropriate backhaul link becomes
available, the battery backed base station router 110 may upload
the collected information using, e.g., a Very Small Aperture
Terminal (VSAT) connection to a satellite, a WLAN connection to a
helicopter, a WiMAX connection or even a UMTS link to another base
station that has backhaul connectivity intact. A UMTS case
described below uses RF reconfiguration in that calls (voice
messages) or SMS/MMS may not be delivered in real time. Instead,
calls or messages may either be sent up over a VSAT link or a quick
upload to a helicopter using WLAN or WiMAX or other wireless
connections.
[0066] A decision block 315 determines whether the wireless
backhaul link 130 is available. If so, when the fixed wired
backbone network link 135 indicates a malfunction, i.e., being not
available for communication or network connectivity. At block 320,
reconfiguration may be performed to tune the base station/BSR into
a high power terminal. That is, a reboot of the base station router
110 may be performed for reprogramming the RF modules and protocol
stacks. Upon reconfiguration, the base station router 110 may
forward the call 125 over the wireless backhaul link 130, as
indicated in block 325.
[0067] To reconfigure a base station or the base station router 110
into a terminal, the filter software 155 and the radio frequency
(RF) modules including the filter 165 may use frequency agile
technique, which may enable a radio frequency communication from
the base station router 110 being a highly-powered terminal. To
swap a transmit frequency band with a receiver frequency band, the
base station router 110 may use the transceiver 160. At the base
station router 110, upon detecting an availability of the wireless
backhaul link 130, the base station router 110 may send call
information associated with the call 125 using a satellite
connection, a WLAN connection, WiMAX connection and/or a UMTS link
to another base station having backhaul connectivity. By using any
one of such connections, the base station router 110 may deliver
the call 125 in non-real time.
[0068] In this way, the base station router 110 and/or the base
station 110a may be reconfigured into a terminal, which uses
"frequency agility" to swap a transmit frequency band with a
receive frequency band. Since the base station router 110 may use a
transceiver of higher transmit power and higher sensitivity than a
conventional mobile terminal, when the base station router 110 is
configured as a terminal, it offers a relative larger cell range,
reaching farther away base stations that are still in operation.
Especially in the context of CDMA and UMTS systems, a link budget
is typically limited by an uplink, an increased terminal transmit
power may enable a cell range increase. Terminals typically have
transmit powers in the order of 100 mW (20 dBm), whereas base
station router 110s typically offers 10 W (40 dBm). So the link
budget may improve by at least 20 dB, for example, and additional
improvements with an antenna of a base station router 110 may be
obtained over a terminal. In particular, a link budget increase by
20 dB may map into a cell radius increase by a factor 3.8.
[0069] By incorporating a frequency agile RF technique, a RF system
of a base station router 110 may provide a symmetric base station
router 110 that may operate either in a base station mode or in a
terminal mode. The RF related modules in a base station router 110
may be turned into frequency agile modules, which enable a change
in frequencies of operation with a radio, a power amplifier (PA)
and one or more filters.
[0070] Since WLAN relies on a symmetric RF system, the same RF
system may be used on access points as used on terminals, e.g.,
(PCMCIA cards). In WLAN, a symmetric RF system is highly
advantageous from cost perspective and secondly from flexibility
perspective. No changes to the hardware may be desired when a
switch between infrastructure and an adhoc mode is implemented.
Such RF system may support a point-to-point as well as
point-to-multipoint communications.
[0071] For emergency cases, a base station router 110 may provide a
stand alone service without backhaul connectivity by storing
emergency calls on an Audix, e.g., voice messages may be compressed
and stored on a hard disk. Then, the base station router 110 may
turn into a high power terminal and reach another base station that
the base station router 110 may communicate with. The extended cell
range of the base station router 110 beside frequency agility
supports standards agility.
[0072] In one embodiment, the base station router 110 (in a
terminal mode) may lower the data rate to enlarge a cell radius and
reach a base station farther away since forwarding of stored voice
messages, such as SMS and MMS may not have to be done in real-time.
The base station router 110 in the terminal mode may use other air
interface protocols to reach a wireless network.
[0073] For forwarding voice messages including SMS and MMS, the
base station router 110 may comprise a packet satellite/VSAT modem.
Moreover, to enable a base station router 110 to distribute special
emergency information, the base station router 110 may utilize a
storage facility as a play-out center for SMS cell broadcast or for
other distribution channels. So when the backhaul infrastructure is
destroyed or not working, in case of a newly installed base station
router 110 in an emergency incident region, or if no such
infrastructure was ever present, the base station router 110 may
complete a call.
[0074] A user may be informed via an audio announcement that
his/her emergency message will be stored and delivered as soon as
possible. The base station router 110 may be configured to accept
calls without authentication of the user. Thus, all Mobile Country
Codes, Mobile Network Codes and Mobile Subscriber Identification
Numbers (MSIN) of users may be accepted. In particular, the 3GPP
standard compliant handsets may be supported. The 2G handsets may
be enabled with a GSM base station router 110 instead of a UMTS
base station router 110 or WCDMA handsets with a 3GPP2 base station
router 110.
[0075] A micro and a pico version of the base station router 110
may be implemented into a small portable box. Thus, the base
station router 110 may be used efficiently to establish a fallback
non real time wireless network connection usable in case of
disasters or other incidents. A wireless network, such as the
wireless network 100 other than GSM/UMTS, such as CDMA, TDMA and
TETRA may employ the base station router 110 in a similar way. In
the base station router 110, a storage capability may store
broadcast information remotely via a non real-time link. Users in
the emergency area may then receive broadcast information from the
base station router 110 even if a real-time backhaul is
missing.
[0076] In one embodiment, the wireless network 100 may wirelessly
communicate mobile data at a speed and coverage desired by
individual users or enterprises. According to one embodiment, the
high-speed wireless data network may comprise one or more data
networks, such as Internet Protocol (IP) network comprising the
Internet and a public telephone system (PSTN). The 3rd generation
(3G) mobile communication system, namely Universal Mobile
Telecommunication System (UMTS) supports multimedia services
according to 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)
specifications. The UMTS also referred as Wideband Code Division
Multiple Access (WCDMA) includes Core Networks (CN) that is packet
switched networks, e.g., IP-based networks. Because of the merging
of Internet and mobile applications, the UMTS users can access both
telecommunications and Internet resources. To provide an end-to-end
service to users, a UMTS network may deploy a UMTS bearer service
layered architecture specified by Third Generation Project
Partnership (3GPP2) standard. The provision of the end-to-end
service is conveyed over several networks and realized by the
interaction of the protocol layers.
[0077] Portions of the present invention and corresponding detailed
description are presented in terms of software, or algorithms and
symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a
computer memory. These descriptions and representations are the
ones by which those of ordinary skill in the art effectively convey
the substance of their work to others of ordinary skill in the art.
An algorithm, as the term is used here, and as it is used
generally, is conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps
leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physical
manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not
necessarily, these quantities take the form of optical, electrical,
or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined,
compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at
times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these
signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms,
numbers, or the like.
[0078] It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and
similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical
quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these
quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise, or as is apparent
from the discussion, terms such as "processing" or "computing" or
"calculating" or "determining" or "displaying" or the like, refer
to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar
electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data
represented as physical, electronic quantities within the computer
system's registers and memories into other data similarly
represented as physical quantities within the computer system
memories or registers or other such information storage,
transmission or display devices.
[0079] Note also that the software implemented aspects of the
invention are typically encoded on some form of program storage
medium or implemented over some type of transmission medium. The
program storage medium may be magnetic (e.g., a floppy disk or a
hard drive) or optical (e.g., a compact disk read only memory, or
"CD ROM"), and may be read only or random access. Similarly, the
transmission medium may be twisted wire pairs, coaxial cable,
optical fiber, or some other suitable transmission medium known to
the art. The invention is not limited by these aspects of any given
implementation.
[0080] The present invention set forth above is described with
reference to the attached figures. Various structures, systems and
devices are schematically depicted in the drawings for purposes of
explanation only and so as to not obscure the present invention
with details that are well known to those skilled in the art.
Nevertheless, the attached drawings are included to describe and
explain illustrative examples of the present invention. The words
and phrases used herein should be understood and interpreted to
have a meaning consistent with the understanding of those words and
phrases by those skilled in the relevant art. No special definition
of a term or phrase, i.e., a definition that is different from the
ordinary and customary meaning as understood by those skilled in
the art, is intended to be implied by consistent usage of the term
or phrase herein. To the extent that a term or phrase is intended
to have a special meaning, i.e., a meaning other than that
understood by skilled artisans, such a special definition will be
expressly set forth in the specification in a definitional manner
that directly and unequivocally provides the special definition for
the term or phrase.
[0081] While the invention has been illustrated herein as being
useful in a telecommunications network environment, it also has
application in other connected environments. For example, two or
more of the devices described above may be coupled together via
device-to-device connections, such as by hard cabling, radio
frequency signals (e.g., 802.11(a), 802.11(b), 802.11(g),
Bluetooth, or the like), infrared coupling, telephone lines and
modems, or the like. The present invention may have application in
any environment where two or more users are interconnected and
capable of communicating with one another.
[0082] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various
system layers, routines, or modules illustrated in the various
embodiments herein may be executable control units. The control
units may include a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a digital
signal processor, a processor card (including one or more
microprocessors or controllers), or other control or computing
devices as well as executable instructions contained within one or
more storage devices. The storage devices may include one or more
machine-readable storage media for storing data and instructions.
The storage media may include different forms of memory including
semiconductor memory devices such as dynamic or static random
access memories (DRAMs or SRAMs), erasable and programmable
read-only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasable and programmable
read-only memories (EEPROMs) and flash memories; magnetic disks
such as fixed, floppy, removable disks; other magnetic media
including tape; and optical media such as compact disks (CDs) or
digital video disks (DVDs). Instructions that make up the various
software layers, routines, or modules in the various systems may be
stored in respective storage devices. The instructions, when
executed by a respective control unit, cause the corresponding
system to perform programmed acts.
[0083] The particular embodiments disclosed above are illustrative
only, as the invention may be modified and practiced in different
but equivalent manners apparent to those skilled in the art having
the benefit of the teachings herein. Furthermore, no limitations
are intended to the details of construction or design herein shown,
other than as described in the claims below. It is therefore
evident that the particular embodiments disclosed above may be
altered or modified and all such variations are considered within
the scope and spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the protection
sought herein is as set forth in the claims below.
* * * * *